SLOW DOWN
by phandabox
Summary: Mutants possibly think most often that they are the only ones that have been either gifted, or cursed, and Diana Williams certainly was among them. A girl who had taught herself of as cursed, her world was entirely turned upside down the moment she had come face to face with the neighbour she had never spoken to - Peter Maximoff.


_I have always thought of myself as the only one. I have always thought that I was the only one that had been put on this Earth with such a curse, something that I had never asked for. It was not my choice to be born the way I was, and if it were for me, I would much quicker choose to never come into existence, than to live with what I had been given. It had never been my choice to freeze everything that my hands would land on. But I guess each and every single one of us had felt like this before, as if they were the only ones, left to lonely wander on this planet as freaks – or 'mutants', as I have later learnt we were to be called._

 _But it wasn't until I had moved into a certain neighbourhood that I've learnt it wasn't just about me, the whole universe did not revolve around myself only as I had thought. It wasn't until I had met a certain somebody that my world had taken a quick turn in a direction opposite of what I thought I would be taking. And I might have got into trouble once or twice along the way._

Years of fear and being kept away – it would be the easiest way to describe the childhood years that Diana had lived. They were not filled with laughter nor joy, especially not from the moment she had been deemed nothing more than a 'freak', left to be raised by just one of her parents, as the other had simply taken the much easier road of abandoning her. Abandoning the unknown. If anyone would be quick to accuse the man that had erased her from his life with such ease nowadays, back then he probably would not receive even the slightest of glares – she was a new type of species, something nobody knew anything of, there was no type of research, nothing that spoke of the existence of people just like her. People who had been gifted by nature rather than cursed, whose bodies had suffered modifications that brought them at least one step or two higher on the ladder of evolution. But as humans feared the unknown, so did Diana's father. And quite honestly, it would probably be no surprise that he feared her very existence, the fact that she could so easily freeze and permanently damage his body with just one touch.

The remaining two members of the family had lived in the same small town for quite the handful of years, but with Diana growing into her teens and with her powers simply going haywire by that point, words beginning to easily spread around about somebody that did not belong in the society, the mother had decided it was time for a 'change of scenery', time for them to move had come, though it did not make much of a difference, honestly.

Would there be one when Diana was forced to remain indoors? Not really. It had become too dangerous for the girl slowly growing into a young woman to step foot outside, to risk showing that she just was not one of them. Her room had become her golden cage. Or at least that was what her mother had thought, who foolishly believed that the idea of sneaking out every now and then would never pop into her daughter's mind.

Diana was an avid fan of the night life, everything that was not mundane, and basically everything that was outside the room she had come to know so well, the four walls that were constantly covered in a thick layer of ice, a type of cold that she had learnt to ignore by that point in her life. And to say the least, she was enthusiastically awaiting each year until the fair would be coming back – the few days when she could feel like she belonged, like she was just like everybody else. The few days when she did not have to feel like she was the only one among thousands, millions, billions of other people that she had absolutely nothing in common with.

The sun had hidden once more, dim bulbs illuminating the streets instead, as the feet walking across them had one destination in particular – the city fair. And among them was a white-haired girl, whose fingers nearly entirely covered with a sleeve brushed the several locks coming into her blue eyes away. One could say that she was easily as excited as a toddler, her feet rushing as she advanced against the pavement, longing for the rides, the fragrance of corn popping, and especially the sweet savour of cotton candy melting against her tongue.

A wooden stick in my hand, a sticky texture on my fingers, and the sweet flavour dissipating against my tongue as soon as I had put it into my mouth was everything that I needed to give this bitter year a much sweeter turn. Yes, cotton candy had always easily been one of my favourite desserts. I couldn't say that my mother had neglected me, she certainly hasn't, and thus I'd be able to affirm that she had given me treats every now and then, but nothing could compare to the white fluff that I would get a taste of only once every year, and the rarity of it was probably what only added to my liking of it. If it were for me, the city fair could come every single day, or at least every weekend, and although I'd be sneaking out every now and then, the fair just made me more motivated to do so whenever the guilt would be settling in. The guilt that I had learnt to easily lie to my mother whilst looking her in the eye, reassure her each time that our house was the only structure I had come to know from the inside. It had become so easily to lie to her that at some point I began thinking that she just did not believe it any more, yet had convinced herself that I was speaking the truth in a false hope that our little secret just would not slip once more.

But this was one of the two nights a year when I just did not want to think of that, when I would get to enjoy myself and the way I spent my time, at least until the sun would be rising once more. It was yet another two nights that I would be spending every little penny that I had accumulated along the year on rides, unhealthy food, trinkets and invaluable jewellery – things that would so easily seem unimportant and unworthy to many others who had come to see them as something so usual, but for me it was more than just that. Each rusty bracelet, plastic ring, and oversized plush that I would manage to win meant something to me, and I mean besides just another item that I had to so carefully hide from my mother.

I had put yet another piece of the white fluff into my mouth, my feet slowly moving across the ground as my eyes took in every sight. The fair looked the same each year, the same rides, the same booths, the same faces and some names that I have even come to know by heart, I could even say that I had some 'connections' with the people working behind the counter, people who had come to allow me a small discount, or throw in an extra ball that I could throw at a target for a bigger chance of winning, but regardless, I was each year mesmerised by the sight. Yet even with my attention not entirely in its place, I could not help but notice the sudden gush of wind, the way it had made the skin on my back crawl. It wasn't just any type of wind, I had become too accustomed with the cold along the years to not be able to tell that it just was not something that nature had created. My head instantly turned, although my eyes caught sight of nothing other than people enjoy the night, which had only prompted me to continue as well, after all, why would I let something as unimportant as a blow of the wind ruin the one night a year that I would be able to entirely enjoy?

I knew all too well that I would have to cut my visit short though at some point, I would be able to enjoy my stay only for as long as my powers would not start acting on their own once more. It was all fun and games until I would be bumping into somebody, my hand would accidentally touch any part of their body, regardless of which it was and cause them something more than just major frostbite. Believe me, personal experience. It was a thought that haunted me, that came to my mind every now and then, and just would not want to leave until my eyes would give up and fall shut, it was something that just could not be easily forgotten – I just could not forget the first and only person I had scarred for life.

A slight shake of my head in an attempt to shake those thoughts off, and my eyes had instead turned their attention towards the colours that had began popping in the night sky, the fireworks that would be announcing the first day and implicitly the opening of the fair. But all it had taken was one moment – one single moment of lack of attention by one person in particular for disaster to ensue. I could not put my finger on what exactly had happened, but what I knew was that it had taken just one moment for flames to begin spreading not just upwards, but stretch outwards, easily engulfing the boots.

To stay low-profile was always something that I had chosen, but at that time it was an instinct reaction the way I had began running towards the flames instead of away from them. I could not feel any shoulder that I brushed against, no person that I might have bumped into, it only mattered that the fire would be put out somehow. Hands aimed towards the crackling flames, in a quick and rather failed attempt of fighting fire with ice, I had instead made the quick decision of building a thick wall around the spreading flames in the hopes that it would keep them away for awhile, at least long enough for everybody in its vicinity to flee. Regardless, I did not even have time to turn my head and take a glimpse at the expressions of those around, to see what their faces would read the moment they had realised what had happened and what I had done, instead I just felt something of a palm somewhere at the back of my neck, fingers extending against my head, and the next thing I knew, my own palm was clasping at my abdomen. I felt a type of sickness I had never felt before, something that would be hard to be even put in words. Nothing came towards my throat, but even so, I felt much sicker to my stomach than I have ever felt for as long as I could remember.

"It's okay, it will go away. It happens when I run.", so easily stated a voice, one that I could not recognise.

My head instantly turned towards the source of it, only to have my eyes fall on a face that, in comparison to the voice, I could distinguish. Black eyes, a one of a kind shade of hair, somewhere between silver and blue, I knew all too well who the male standing next to me was.

Maximoff was a boy I had never spoken with, but I could say I had admired from a distance – from the distance that would be between him and my window, to be exact, after all, he was a type of person with an appearance that was not hard to miss, especially when our houses stood in front of each other. Looking up from the seat of my desk, I could easily take a glimpse of him each time he walked out and got in. But the name of 'Maximoff' was the only one that I knew belonged to him, having only read it on the mailbox.

But coming back to my senses, his words had finally sunk in, my eyes narrowing, quite confused. "Wait, what do you mean? What do you mean it happens when you run?"

Somewhat of a chuckle had come from his throat just as his eyes dropped momentarily, only to lift once more, giving me a look that I could only think were the ones to judge my sanity instead of the other way around. "You mean you haven't noticed the change in scenery just yet?"

Change in scenery, just what was he talking about? But it had taken just a split second for me once I had been given that hint that indeed our surroundings had changed, and to my surprise, we were nowhere else but standing exactly on the street his house was at, just a few mere steps away from the door, and even a shorter distance away from the mailbox I would be staring at every now and then.

"How did you do that?", I asked. My brows were brought together, the muscles in my face contorted in such a way that showed concern. Should I have been surprised? I certainly thought so, not even for a smallest moment had I had a certain thought pass my mind.

"Ah, pfft...", a snort had instead come from him. "Easily, I'm just like you. Well, not exactly like you, I mean I can't do the whole ice building thing that you have done, but yeah. I'm different in a way that I am like you."


End file.
